County Attorney Association wants more help in child abuse investgations

The Iowa County Attorneys Association is calling for more specialty units with medical experts who check out child abuse allegations. Iowa County Attorneys Association president Tom Ferguson says child protection centers help get the right answers.Ferguson, who’s the Black Hawk County Attorney, is using a special medical center at St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids to interview and examine children who may have been abused.There’s a child protection center at Mercy Hospital in Sioux City, too. Ferguson suggests a third should be established in central Iowa. He says having resources across the state would make them more accessible.Ferguson says another option would be to establish a child abuse specialty unit at University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City. Ferguson says it just makes sense to have experts conduct the exam and interview with the abused child, so that expert can give credible testimony during the trial.In the controversial Shelby Duis case, the Spirit Lake toddler was checked over by a physician the day before she died, but the doctor sent Duis home with her mother.